Moving Towards Meaningful Private Sector Contribution to Sustainable Development

 

On May 1st, the Dialogue on a Convention for Corporate Sustainability and Accountability (convened by Stakeholder Forum and Vitae Civilis), the Global Reporting Initiative and Aviva Investors organized the side event ‘Moving towards Meaningful Private Sector Contribution to Sustainable Development’, during the second round of 'informal-informal' negotiations in New York.

Speakers included:

• David Pitt-Watson from UNEP-FI, who explained why a report or explain approach will be useful for investors, something proven through the implementation of mandatory reporting on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
• Teresa Fogelberg from GRI looked at the benefits and concerns of mandatory sustainability reporting.
• Narinder Kakar from IUCN presented the joint work of IUCN and WBCSD on this agenda.
• Adam M. Kanzer from the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Coalition presented the work of the coalition in also trying to establish a convention.
• Aron Belinky from Vitae Civilis looked at how progress is being restricted by the fact reporting is currently voluntary, and explained how emerging countries could champion a mandatory movement.
• Harris Gleckman, former head of the Environmnet at UN Center on Transnational Corporations explained the 'who's' and 'what's' which must be articulated to delegates to ensure this translates into effective working in the outcome document.